Description

The space traveler and rogue guardian Sheltem has left the world VARN, where he was pursued by the relentless Corak the Mysterious and a party of local adventurers helping him. The Gates to Another World eventually takes all of them to another world, known as CRON. There, a great turmoil is caused by Sheltem's actions, and the heroes must stop his madness, preventing him from casting the planet into its own sun.

Gates to Another World is the second installment in the Might and Magic series, and a sequel to Secret of the Inner Sanctum. Core gameplay is similar to predecessor, with the player creating a party of six characters and exploring vast first-person 3D environments, while fighting enemies in turn-based combat and leveling up. Unlike the first game, enemy encounters occur at set points rather than spawning randomly, though enemy type selection is still random.

Like in the previous game, character classes rely each on a particular attribute to be effective. Knight, Paladin, Archer, Cleric, Sorcerer and Robber return, with the addition of two new classes, Ninja and Barbarian. Race selection features humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and half-orcs. There are several locations and items that are restricted to certain genders, alignments, or races. A new feature is the possibility to hire two non-player characters to travel with the party and participate in battles. A new skill system is introduced as well, allowing characters to learn such abilities as mountaineering (necessary to traverse mountains), linguist (for reading certain messages), cartographer (for creating an auto-map), and others.

Compared to the first game, the sequel is more quest-oriented, with various characters in towns giving quests to the party, as opposed to purely exploration-based traveling in the predecessor. Time also plays a large role in this game, with some instances requiring the party to travel to different time periods. Characters also age as the game goes on; If the player waits too long, the characters' statistics will change to reflect their aging, and they will eventually die.

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Trivia

Cancelled US SNES release

There were plans to release the Super Nintendo version in the US, but it never came to fruition. However, the SNES version was released in other regions.

Hirelings

Hireling ages are calculated in an interesting way. If a hireling is at level one, then they will be 18, but if their level is higher, then one is subtracted from their level number and then added to 18.

References

The two Wizards the sorceror class has to free in order to complete the plus quest are Yekop and Ybmug--or Pokey and Gumby spelled backwards.

HK Phooey, a ninja hireling in the game, is named after a cartoon series about a dog who works as a janitor in a police station. The dog moonlights as a ninja by the name of "Hong Kong Phooey".

Thund R--a barbarian hireling--gets his name from a cartoon called Thundarr the Barbarian.

There are some woodsmen who challenge you to a tree felling contest. The song they are singing is, "Oh, I'm a lumberjack...". this is in reference to the Monty Python song.

In Tundara, the portal in the Inn is manned by a guy named Jean-Luc. Star Trek: The Next Generation fans will know him as the captain of the Enterprise from that series. He also offers to "energize" you to your destination, and ends with the captain's line from the series---"Make it so".

In the Druid's cavern is a location that has cans of spinach. If you eat it, you gain strength. The game also provides a line "You're strong to the finish 'cause you ate your spinach!" that comes from the old AARP cartoon series Popeye the Sailor Man. For those who don't know, Popeye gained strength to defeat his adversaries by eating spinach from a can that he always seemed to either find or have on him.

In the slums of Sansobar, there is a message on a wall that, when read straight across, begins "Beware of eyes!" It seems to be surrounded by random letters. However, if you read these letters from the top down, you get the following messages: "Hi, Mom" "Spork" "XOXO" and "Slum rat Rule".

Another hireling is named Jed I. This is, of course, taken from Star Wars' Jedi Knights.

There is a sorceress by the name of Aeriel who is with Thund R. when you first meet them in Vulcania. As with Thund R., Ariel is the name of a character from Thundarr the Barbarian who was also a sorceress. It's also interesting to note that both these hirelings are human and good, which corresponds to their alter egos in the cartoon series.

Nakazawa, a ninja hireling, is named after Nakazawa Minoru, president of StarCraft Inc. StarCraft ported MM1 to MM5 (DOS) and King's Bounty to Japanese-made PCs (PC88, PC98, X1, FM-7, MSX2) and published them in Japan.

SNES version

All alcoholic beverages were renamed to non-alcoholic ones (but still give alcohol poisoning), some other places and food were renamed as well and the enemy sprites of the thief (blood on dagger removed) and ghoul (the severed arm used as weapon replaced with a club) were changed.

Awards

Computer Gaming World

November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #12 Least Rewarding Ending of All Time